Monday, July 1, 2013

Goodbye Google Reader!

Google Reader is going to be shut down today. Users have felt bitter, angry, and somewhat panic in the past few months. However, so many developers have been working hard to create Google Reader replacements. I have seen new services popping up everyday. We may very well witness the RSS rebirth right now.

If you have not migrated your Google Reader account to any new services, you better take actions immediately. Follow this article to backup your Google Reader data. Feeddler 2.0 supports three alternative services. Sign up any services now and import the subscriptions.xml file from the backups to these services. Use Google login when you sign up these services so some of them may import your Google Reader data automatically.

If you use Google login to sign up these services, you need to create a separate mobile login for Feeddler to sync with your select services. For BazQux Reader, select settings (upper right gear button) and select mobile login to create a user name and a password. For FeedHQ, go to its Account Settings. For The Old Reader, add a user name and a password in Settings.

I have also fixed a few bugs in Feeddler 2.0. A minor update is almost ready for App Store submission.

55 comments:

I migrated to the Old Reader today. I understand that I lost all my starred articles, and while I'm pissed about that, I realize there isn't anything I can do about it. However, I no longer appear to be able to star articles at all anymore. Is this a permanent change? This was something that made this app worthwhile for me.

Please provide support for Feedly. You can have tags in Feedly, and when you sync your subscriptions from Google Reader, all your tags will be intact. None of the other API's currently offered by Feeddler provides proper tag functioning. I'd pay for this convenience!

Managed to import everything from google reader to Old Reader and this afternoon everything worked with feedler pro on my ipad, but tonight all I get is an error/retry message when I try to use feedler pro on my ipad.

I'm not really sure what to do next. I tried to set up with feedly, but they don't seem to have an app. I guess you just read them through a browser? I'm so confused!

@Ken Roser- You are my BEST FRIEND! I checked out Bazqux and it's 100% better than Google Reader.

The Old Reader is horrible for Feeddler. I'm probably happier now with Bazqux than I was with Google Reader before it died. Any problems with Feeddler are the fault of the Reader service. Feeddler is the same as it always was.

For those of you having problems with Feeddler since Google went away, think of it in simple terms... Your Reader Service (ex. The Old Reader) is like your cable provider (ex. Comcast) and Feeddler is your TV. If you turn on your tv and find scrambled channels, you would call your cable company, not your TV manufacturer (Feeddler). Please consider the features you are looking for before committing to a Reader service. Try out a few and see what works best for you, or just take my advice and go with Bazqux, it's $9 a year.

Bottom line: The Old Reader is not good for Feeddler users.

The Old Reader was developed in 2011 and not much has been done since to improve integration. (Although I believe they are working on it.)

For those experiencing freezing, double tap on the Home button and remove Feeddler from the running apps and restart, that should fix it. If it doesn't, delete the app and reinstall. You'll need to do this if you change Readers too so that you can enter your new credentials.

You need to create an account at one of the three RSS Feed Providers that Feeddler supports (that replace Google Reader as your backend); Feeddler is just a viewer/manager for one of these services.

Your best bet is BazQux (BazQux.com); it's a paid service, but so far, it's been the most reliable, and feature-complete (as compared to GR); you can pay as little as $9 per year with a 30 day trial and the developer is super-motivated and responsive.

Once you have your account there (or at one of the others, if you choose), you can import your Google Takeout as a whole, or just your Subscriptions.xml file.

For more info go to http://BazQux.com/faq

He did a great job preserving tags, folders, feeds and even starred items. Later this year, he is promising additional support to import any other JSON files you like from your takeout, such as likes.json (Favorites or "Hearts") from GR.

Once your have your GR transferred, you simply enter those login credentials in Feeddler, and you're back in business.

Liz, you can still migrate from GR to BazQux (until the 15th), and you will retain your Starred items, tags, folders and feeds (all but Heart/Favorites for now; the developer is adding support for that later this year).

BazQux is a paid service (as low as $9/year) while the Old Reader is free. You get what you pay for, as you say.

Everyone else: CBL says Feedly support is next up and coming later this year.

For everyone who still have not migrated your account, please sign up a free account at theoldreader.com, or go to bazqux.com or feedhq.org to sign up an account for 30-day free trial, and be sure to add a user name and a password that you will need to login with Feeddler.

Go to Google Takeout (https://www.google.com/takeout/#custom:reader) to export your Reader data and import subscriptions.xml to the service you signed up. All subscription data will be removed by Google on 7/15.

I don't use my RSS feeds often, but got set up with Feedler 6 months or so ago when I learned Google Reader was going away. I can log in to my brand new BazQux account, but no feeds. The feeds show up in Feedler under the Google account but not the BazQux account. How do I get Feedler, which apparently has all my feed info, to use that same info with the new back end?

Thank you. Yes, I did that and my iPad logs in with the mobile ID. When I log in from Feedler with the BQ mobile login I do not see my feeds. I only see the feeds when I am logged in from Feedler to my Google account, which of course isn't updating the feeds. Apparently my feed info still exists inside Feedler (or somewhere?) - just need to re associate now with the BQ back end.

Hmmm... Might be worth trying to "Sync All Feeds" from the bottom of the Subscriptions menu (iPad). Might also be a good idea to 'Clear Cache' first from the Settings menu.

The only devices I had trouble with seeing any feeds at all, like you are describing, were when no mobile login had been setup, or the mobile login was mis-entered; I.E., Feeddler will let you enter incorrect login settings, and then just not display anything under that account.

Might also try deleting and reinstalling your BQ account in Feeddler.

I hesitate to suggest you delete and reinstall Feeddler, unless your legacy GR data (you're seeing cached articles, not an active connection to GR) has no value, and you don't mind setting all your viewing preferences in feeddler again.

Another thing to try, if you have another iOS device, or even on the same device is to try Feeddler free version with fresh install and login credentials.

Past that, you can email CBL directly from the Support option in the Settings menu; he's awesome with quick and thorough support (one of the top reasons to choose Feeddler over the rest).

Did you export your feeds from Google Reader before 7/15? If not, Google completely turned it off on 7/15 and you cannot export data any more.

If you don't have too many feeds, you can add them one by one after you login to BazQux via Feeddler. If you have too many, please wait patiently until I release the next update which I will add a function to move all your subscriptions and folders to the new service you will use.

Again, the best way to solve your Feeddler problems is to send me an email: feeddlerATgmailDOTcom

Sorry if I misinterpreted your issue; I thought you said if you go to BQ directly "on my iPad" (I presumed you meant in Safari) that you could see all your feeds just fine.

If you setup your BQ account (via web browser, not inside Feeddler) using your Google ID, it should have automatically imported all your GR feeds and a portion of your historical data.

So, if you *are* able to see feeds in BQ via any web browser, then you still have a problem with just Feeddler.

If you *aren't* able to see any feeds in BQ via Safari (not Feeddler), try this: add any random feed to BQ via web view in safari, make sure it shows up after refreshing the page; now login again via Feeddler and see if that one feed appears as expected. If yes, follow CBL's advice above to rebuild manually.

Or, I'm pretty sure you can import a feeds.xml file in BQ directly via Safari now, and then see all that via Feeddler without waiting for a feature update.

Hi Federico - I just signed up for a BQ account today - after the July 15th deadline. I was lead to believe setting up Feeddler in place of GR and logging into my Google account inside Feeddler was all that was needed - which I did 6 mons ago. I have been using Feeddler and not GR since the original announcement - though GR was the "account" in Feeddler. I didn't understand that a new back-end service for Feedler was also required.

Things are working as they should. Except I don't have my original set of subscriptions from GR active in Feeddler which is the problem I want to solve. I can add a subscription in BQ via the BQ web interface and have it show up in Feeddler under my BQ account. When I am in Feeddler and select the GR account, I can still see all of my (not updated) subscriptions. It sounds like cb will be adding a feature to move current GR subscriptions and folder to the new back-end service. I don't have a feeds.xml file from Google to import, unfortunately. I didn't go through that process as I thought I did what was needed.

I respect their decision, but as an app developer I would be quite irritated. Implementing a service and a few weeks later starting all over again. Well, what's next? Supporting something bigger like Feedly, self-hosting stuff like TT-RSS or InoReader? InoReader looks really good btw, but I never heard of it before. Has a bit of playing Roulette.

I signed up for your service well before Google Reader shut down. Now I can only see my folders and the names of the blogs, but nothing else - and only on my old phone, not my new one. How do I get my feeds back?

I've been very pleased since July 2013 with the combination of Feedler Pro and the BasQux Reader. However, on the after noon August 2, 2014, Feedler Pro's BasQux logon stopped working. Noting that BasQux is based in Moscow, I fear that this problem stems either from the Russian government's new restrictions on Internet servers or on the West's new economic restrictions on commerce with Russian companies.

Have any other Feedler Pro + BasQux Reader users had this problem? What's currently the best alternative to BasQux?